Data Center Products Earn ENERGY STAR Certification

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has finalized its first ENERGY STAR specification for data center storage products.

According to IDC, a market research firm, annual sales of storage capacity will increase by more than 30 percent every year through 2017, a slower pace than the historical trend that is primarily attributed to growing concerns with cost and energy efficiency.

Online storage systems are designed to be on all the time and use approximately 80% of their peak energy capacity while simply idling their spinning drives. Additionally, most storage products exhibit a characteristic power/performance curve with increasing efficiency up to some size, then a drop off after passing their optimal peak.

The ENERGY STAR specification recognizes products that perform well around this peak point, so labeled products perform near their optimal peak. The specification also requires the use of energy efficient power supplies and power consumption reporting. It promotes the use of capacity optimization methods and adaptive active cooling where appropriate for end users.

To earn the ENERGY STAR label, products must be certified by an EPA recognized third party and tested in an EPA
recognized laboratory.

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